Island Hopping and a Secret Society

Giant Jellyfish and, later, Giant Leeches

The party, when recovering from their fight the day before, was asked by the children of the village to help find their missing friend, Corgi, who hadn’t been seen since the children played ‘Mouse the Hero’ the night before. The village elder, Entall, came up to the party and asked if they needed anything. He told them that he hadn’t seen Corgi, but that that wasn’t unusual because he likes to explore, and he also told them that they could probably find the artifact that they were looking for in the freshwater caves in the middle of the island.

Mouse went to the cliff to retrieve his daggers that he had lost in the fight, but saw a strange sight below: Orange sahuagin dragging away the bodies of the blue sahuagin killed the day before. These new orange sahuagin were moving in a strange manner, and, after Variez used magic to mend the ladder, the party followed them to the edge of the ocean where they discovered the orange sahuagin tossing the bodies of the blue sahuagin into the ocean where they were being gobbled up by an enormous jellyfish!

The party returned to the village and looked for Entall to warn him about the jellyfish, but they got distracted by a lizardfolk man who told them his daughter had run off with his booze to the old decrepit protection shrine. Variez went with the man to find his daughter, while Zordlon Feubart, Zachar Zetziev, and Mouse went to find Entall at the new protection shrine.

Entall and another lizardfolk woman are found carving draconic runes into the new shrine. Mouse tells them all about the jellyfish. The lizardfolk woman says that it might be the ‘dancing sickness’ and that the ‘mindworms’ are back. Entall sends some lizardfolk to check it out, and sends some runners to the other villages on the island. Entall told the party to return that night so that everyone can have a meeting about the jellyfish.

Variez meanwhile recovers the booze by lying to the teenagers and telling them that horrible things will happen to their bodies if the drink underage. He was given a few bottles of Dwarven rum by the owner of the booze.

The party reunited and went off to the caves in the center of the island. There were a few green sahuagin playing in the river there. Mouse stealthily took their weapons that were lying on the ground, and the party went past them and into the cave. The river flowed down into the cave, and the party followed it.

The first room had a large pool of water and some buckets for gathering it. The river flowed deeper, so the party followed it to the next room. This room had cracks of light in the top of it, revealing the stone ruins entangled with jungle vines that were on either side of the river. The river flowed through a metal grate at the end of the room, and on either side was a statue of a gorilla. As the party tried to force its way past the grate, the statues became animate and attacked. After a tough battle in the river, during which Zord was flank-hit and pushed underwater by the current, the party crumbled both statues. The party then forced the grate open and Variez was swept under it by the current. The rest of the party followed.

The next room contained a deep pool. There were several electric eels in the pool that were quite an annoyance, causing some party members to lose feeling and slip under water. Eventually the eels were defeated.

The party then found a room containing eight stone chests. One contained a snake, three contained bones, one contained 800 very old gold pieces, one contained a puff of soot, and one was completely empty.

Next there was a room full of moss and giant leeches. The leeches took a good chunk out of Variez before they were dispatched.

And into the hearts of the Lizardfolk

After flying The GATPBCBHPA into a hailstorm, the crazy old alchemist’s airship was severely dinged up. Redrick Elm had decided to brave the hailstorm in order to follow the pointing of his magical artifact detecting compass. Unfortunately, the airship had to turn back and the island in the icestorm was never reached.

The mechanism that raises and lowers the light sails was damaged to the point that the sails currently need to be raised and lowered by hand, which is very annoying to have to do. Also, the railings and roofs were greatly damaged by the flying chunks of ice. Just, dented to hell, really. The ship is still flyable at this point, but it looks terrible.

The airship was anchored on the northernmost side of Scale-Tail Island, near a Lizardfolk village called Conqua. In an amazing stroke of luck, the compass appears to be pointing towards the center of this island too.

The ship’s crew, looking for wood to make some makeshift repairs to the airship, decided to ask the village if they could cut down some of the trees in the nearby jungle. The village was celebrating a holiday in memory of one of the “Daughters of the village” who had died falling from a cliff a year earlier. No villager was allowed to work or play that day. The village elder, Entall, told them to cut down the trees in a specific place, where the Lizardfolk wished to erect a shrine and needed a cleared area anyway. Because the crew’s own axe was damaged in the hailstorm, Entall gave them three stone axes, apologizing for being unable to provide better equipment due to a sahuagin raid on their village a week earlier. The crew got to work cutting down the giant trees (80 ft. tall), neatly dealing with some encounters with Fire Lichen and a Jellywisp.

Variez proved to be a very skilled lumberjack and he made short work of 7 trees, and neatly arranged them in a pile (with assistance from the rest of the crew). Moving the trees to the ship proved more challenging however, and it was midnight before just 2 of the trees were secure on the ship. At midnight, the children of the village burst forth to play with the crew and explore the newcomers. The crew endeared themselves to the children, all except Mouse whom the children did not take a liking to. Zordlon Feubart discussed with Entall the possible retrieval of the stolen items that the sahuagin had taken in their raid. The wise old lizard said he would think about it over the night. The crew partook in the final part of the holiday, which was a late night feast of roasted meat. A pig hunt was scheduled for the next morning, and Abigail Grace was eager to participate.

The next morning, after resting on the ship for the night, the crew split up to complete a few different tasks. A strike force consisting of Mouse, Zord, and Varies, climbed down the village cliff to find the sahuagin that had taken the village’s resources. Varies fell partway down the cliff and twisted his ankle, and Zord had a minor spill as well. They discovered tents on the shore belonging to the sahuagin. A few sahuagin were roasting fish around a campfire. The crew sneakily tore a hole in the tent containing the goods and made off with them, but not before two dogs gave chase. The three of them scrambled back up the cliff, assuming that the sahuagin would soon be giving chase.

At the same time, Zachar Zetziev assisted in the building of the newest village shrine in the area where the trees had been cut down. Grace went pig-hunting with the villagers and managed to aid in the capture of a large amount of food. The village, with its equipment recovered, food captured, and shrine built, had a bit of a party again.

In preparation for a possible sahuagin attack, the crew moved two large logs to the cliff. Zord and the villagers prepared a trapped ladder that they leaned against the 120 foot cliff in the hopes that the sahuagin were dumb enough to use it. Grace returned to the airship to talk to the alchemist. About 20 sahuagin arrived at the base of the cliff with their two dogs. The sahuagin proved to be terrible climbers.Some of them fell, some of them were crushed by the logs, and two of them tried to use the ladder. Eventually a few of them made it to the top of the cliff, however, and proved to be tough combat adversaries. Zord, Zach and Varies all were taken out with the sahuagin’s trident-spears and fell unconscious and bleeding. With only Mouse left, the sahuagins attempted to kick him off of the cliff. His quick reflexes allowed him to catch the cliff as he fell. As he held on for dear life, The GATPBCBHPA flew overhead and the alchemist threw a concussion bomb at the cliff, blowing the remaining sahuagin over the edge with a loud foghorn sound. Also blown over the edge was Zach’s unconscious body, but the alchemist made a miraculous save and caught him on the deck of the airship. After smashing through the railing on the deck, Zach landed in a pool of his own blood. Grace began helping him. Mouse climbed up the cliff and helped Zord and Varies. Mouse then stumbled back to the village covered in blood where he collapsed by some lizardfolk hunters.

The party members rested to regain their health. Mouse regained consciousness first and went about the town telling tall tales of his heroism to the lizardfolk. He quickly became the favorite of the village children. Zack and Zord regained consciousness that evening, and Varies eventually recoved that night. The villagers give the crew a massive amount of salted meat that should last for three weeks on the ship.